FRISCO — More than five months after Indian-born Pallavi Dhawan was accused of killing her 10-year-old son, the case continues to draw criticism and raise questions about the role that cultural issues may be playing in the homicide investigation.

Frisco police stand by the integrity of their investigation and say every case poses unique challenges. “There are nuances to each individual criminal investigation and we work through them,” Deputy Chief of Police David Shilson said in an email.

But others believe -- and the medical examiner ruled -- that “natural disease is most likely” the cause of death. The police, critics say, were too quick to make an arrest.

“It’s a very different type of case for them. They should have spent more time asking questions before calling it a homicide,” said Subhendu Rath, a family friend who lives in Lewisville.

Long-time acquaintences say that Pallavi Dhawan devoted herself to caring for her medically fragile child. “It’s impossible that she would ever harm her kid,” said Santosh Raikar, who posts updates on the “I Support Pallavi Dhawan” Facebook page that has drawn almost 2,000 “Likes.”

The Dhawans have called the last few months a nightmare. “We just pray that no one ever has to go through what we've gone through in the last five months,” said Sumeet Dhawan, Pallavi’s husband.

Frisco police say they are still collecting evidence in the case and can’t present it to the prosecutor’s office until that’s done. But they maintain that the actions of officers involved in Pallavi Dhawan’s arrest “were very appropriate.”

On Jan. 29, police were called to the couple’s home after Sumeet requested a welfare check. He had returned home from a business trip and became concerned after his wife left the house for several hours, according to police records.

Officers found the decomposing body of Arnav Dhawan in a dry bathtub, shrouded up to his neck and surrounded by melted ice packs.

Authorities said the mother nodded her head when asked if she’d killed the child – an allegation that the couple has vehemently denied. She was handcuffed and taken to police headquarters where her arrest was announced the next day.

Police also said Sumeet Dhawan has told them the couple was experiencing marital problems and his wife was dealing with mental health issues.

Arnav Dhawan (Photo courtesy of David Finn)

Almost immediately, questions began to surface about the case.

Defense attorney David Finn said the boy’s body had no indication of any kind of trauma and there was no fluid in his lungs that would indicate he’d been drowned – facts later confirmed in a medical examiner’s report.

The child had on-going medical issues. After he was born, Arnav was diagnosed with a brain cyst and microcephaly, a rare neurological condition characterized by an unusually small head, according to Mayo Clinic medical records shared by his parents.

In addressing one of the most baffling aspects of the case, Finn said his client didn’t report the child’s death because she was waiting for her husband to return home from a business trip to administer last rites, in keeping with Hindu customs.

Pallavi Dhawan may have also feared exposing her son’s body to an autopsy.

“Hindus believe in ‘Daah Sanskaar’ (cremation), as opposed to burial, and keeping the body intact for the same is extremely important, that disturbing the body or having any cuts or organs removed is disturbing to the soul and inhibits the soul from moving forward,” she wrote in a sworn affidavit. “This is what I was thinking as I waited for my husband to return from his business trip.”

Shilson recently agreed to answer a series of questions about the case via email. His answers inicate that police believe the murder charge is based on the more than Pallavi Dhawan’s disputed head nod and is substantiated by the medical examiner’s report, which found the boy died of “undetermined causes.”

Of that ruling, Shilson wrote: “‘Undetermined causes’ clearly support the need for an investigation. The medical examiner’s report also states, ‘The unusual circumstances cannot be ignored, thus raising the possibility of an unnatural cause of death.’ ”

Meanwhile, Denise Paquette Boots, an associate professor of criminology at the University of Texas at Dallas, reviewed the case and said it “calls for a consideration of the cultural and religious differences that caused (Pallavi Dhawan’s) behavior to be weighed with the criminal laws in our state.”

Boots, who has no connection to this case, believes Frisco police were acting in accordance with their criminal training but might not have been prepared for the unfamiliar religious customs they faced.

“They may not have had the training to recognize the cultural differences that would differentiate this child’s death from others that they were trained to respond to,” she said.